What law school competencies best translate to BigLaw corporate work? Forum

[Sum_Guy]

No particular motivation, just interested in hearing what experienced folks think.

[I'm a T6 2L, currently drafting a request to register for a spring class at the business school, and I'm forced to explain how it will help my studies or legal career. That got me to thinking about which things I'm doing (and learning, but really more about the doing -- making outlines, writing exams, seminars, ?) are developing skills that will be valuable to my future clients or superiors at my firm. Note that I'm specifically not asking for help or input on this cross-registration request, just wondering what if anything people think back on as "I was really good at X in law school and I use that all the time at work now".]

[Anonymous User]

Graduated over a decade now, and I can't even really remember what classes I took 2L and 3L years.

[Anonymous User]

That one class in corporate finance where we went over some excel stuff.

[Anonymous User]

I'm a 6th year at a V50. In law school I was lazy and would generally not do anything all semester, then about 1 or 2 weeks out from finals I would work around the clock (often including multiple all-nighters) to cram and take all my exams.

Being used to (and able to do) that schedule was the most valuable training I got in law school for my life in corporate biglaw. Dead serious.

[attorney589753]

Contracts, corporations (mildly), nothing else? Issue spotting and writing matter more or less whatever practice you pick.

[jhett]

The ability to power through unending piles of work.

[kls120]

Being able to stay on top of multiple things at any given time and not lose track.

[jotarokujo]

honestly just take clinic, ideally negotiation/transactional focused, and enjoy 2L and 3L. could also to a transactional externship. clinic = 3LOL

[Anonymous User]

I'm a 6th year at a V50. In law school I was lazy and would generally not do anything all semester, then about 1 or 2 weeks out from finals I would work around the clock (often including multiple all-nighters) to cram and take all my exams.

Being used to (and able to do) that schedule was the most valuable training I got in law school for my life in corporate biglaw. Dead serious.

I was the same way throughout college and law school. Some people would call me crazy, but it just worked for me. And, like you said, I think it really helps out in biglaw.

[Anonymous User]

I took a class on transactional drafting, which was a good introduction to how purchase agreements work, which was good. Try to take a class in securities regulation too in case you decide to do funds work, which has better work/life balance relative to pure M&A/PE.

[Monochromatic Oeuvre]

You're going to do this shit for 40 years and you want to figure out how you can do more of it in the last two free years of your young life?

[Anonymous User]

nm

[Sum_Guy]

You're going to do this shit for 40 years and you want to figure out how you can do more of it in the last two free years of your young life?

Not even close.

I'm 45 years old and going to be a BigLaw intern this summer. I'm just wondering if any of the shit in law school (like, being able to dump out as many half-cocked thoughts you have in 3 hours) has any relevance to actual practice.

I mean, I'm guessing not other than say what you might have picked up in a contract drafting class.

[Sum_Guy]

That one class in corporate finance where we went over some excel stuff.

Wish this wasn't a joke.

I kick ass at Excel like it's my job. Because it used to be.

[Sum_Guy]

Contracts, corporations (mildly), nothing else? Issue spotting and writing matter more or less whatever practice you pick.

The odd thing to me about law school is how counter to good writing it seems to be.

I've had to fight through a lot of (good) habits built by 20 years of drafting written advice to clients in order to write an effective exam paper. Some seminars require actual writing, I basically wrote my reaction papers like I was leaving comments to a blog post and that seemed to be what the prof wanted. I suppose I've picked up a lot of bluebooking doing journal editing, but I don't think that matters for transactional?

[aspiringlaw]

A tolerance for pain and misery

[dabigchina]

If you are going into tax, you will definitely use what you learn in class.

Otherwise, the skillset that transfers over the most is probably from journal. Spotting typos and shit is like 90% of what you do the first couple of years anyway.

[papermateflair]

I took a niche contract drafting class for like, one credit, and it was probably the most helpful thing to me when I started working to be honest. It was super practical, even if I didn't end up becoming a lawyer for celebrities or whatever, I still needed to know some basics about how to draft a contract (make sure you review the boilerplate! also, what is the boilerplate?).